President

Prof. Dr. Zühtü ARSLAN

Mr. Zühtü Arslan graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, in 1987. He received his master’s degree on “Human Rights and Civil Freedoms” and PhD degree on constitutional law at the Law Faculty of Leicester University (UK). He obtained the title of associate professor in 2002 and professor of constitutional law in 2007.

He attended lawyer traineeship program at the European Court of Human Rights in 2001. Besides, he served as a member to the Plenary of the Press Advertisement Institution. In 2009, he was appointed as the President of the Police Academy of Turkey, where he taught courses on ‘Constitutional Law’, ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Theories of State’ at graduate and post-graduate levels. He also taught ‘Turkish Public Law’ at Bilkent University and ‘Law and Politics’ at Başkent University.

Prof. Arslan published following three books in Turkish: Anayasa Teorisi (Constitutional Theory, 2005 ), Avrupa İnsan Hakları Sözleşmesinde Din Özgürlüğü (Freedom of Religion under the European Convention on Human Rights, 2005), and Türk Parlamento Tarihi 1957-1960 (History of Turkish Parliament between 1957–1960) (3 Volumes, 2013). He also edited a book titled ABD Yüksek Mahkemesi Kararlarında İfade Özgürlüğü (Freedom of Expression in the Judgments of the US Supreme Court, 2003).

He is the co-author of the book Constitutional Law in Turkey, (Wolters Kluwer, 2016). He has also published numerous articles in national and international law reviews on constitutional law, human rights, relations of freedom-security and the law of political parties.

Prof. Arslan was appointed as the Judge of the Constitutional Court by the President of the Republic of Turkey on 17 April 2012 from among three candidates proposed by the Council of Higher Education.

He was elected as the President of the Constitutional Court by the Plenary of the Court on 10 February 2015, and re-elected on 25 January 2019.

He is married with four children.